What happened in Thursday and Friday's first round

Duquesne leads BYU 65-60 with just 19 seconds to go. The Cougars tied the game with 1:48 to go — the first tie of the game — but the Dukes' Jimmy Clark III has scored five consecutive points, putting his team on the cusp of the NCAA Tournament's first upset.

PITTSBURGH — It feels like Creighton might just have too much firepower. After trailing 33-31 with three minutes left in the first half, the Jays have now taken charge and lead, 50-42, at the first media timeout of the second half.

Akron has shot well to hang around and has an experienced team, but Creighton seems to have just too much offense. The Jays were 15-of-25 shooting in the first half and have started 3-of-5 in the second half to create a little breathing room.

OMAHA, Neb. — Buckle up. Duquesne has a 2-point lead with 3:01 remaining in what could be the final minutes of Keith Dambrot's coaching career. Duke led for 36:09 thus far. As if the place wasn't tense enough they're supplementing the atmosphere with the Creighton game on the screens during the timeout.

Getting one-part of the Caleb Love experience here in Salt Lake City and it's not the one Arizona is looking for this March. Love is 2-for-8 from the field and 0-for-5 on 3s in what's a much closer matchup than most imagined — the second-seeded Wildcats are tied 33-33 with 15th-seeded Long Beach State with three minutes remaining till halftime.

Love's shot selection has been, um, questionable, including most recently chasing down a loose ball with most of his teammates on the opposite side of the court and four Long Beach defenders in position. Love turned and launched a 3 with 25 second left on the shot clock as Tommy Lloyd responded with a blank stare.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Duke coach Jon Scheyer said Thursday that Caleb Foster is officially out for the NCAA Tournament. Foster's last appearance for the Blue Devils came on Feb. 24 against Wake Forest. He averaged 7.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists on the season.

"My heart breaks for Caleb because Caleb has done literally everything you could ask from a guy who has an injury and trying to get back out there," Scheyer said ahead of Duke's first-round matchup against Vermont. "We have gone multiple second opinions. He tried to practice earlier this week. He wasn't able to really be himself. And so he's going to be out. He has a stress fracture in his ankle, and it's a unique injury. And so we'll be missing him."

"Obviously we are a different team, no question. But we've done this before. We've done this throughout the year with different guys being out, and it's no different now of how we need to step up and do it collectively."

No. 1 seed, West Region

Opponent, time, TV: Wagner, 2:45 p.m., CBS

Team in 16 words: The transfer portal and go-to guy RJ Davis have given the Tar Heels new life.

Record: 27-7 (17-3 ACC)

Coach: Hubert Davis (5-1 in NCAA Tournament, 1 Final Four)

Player to watch: RJ Davis (ACC Player of the Year)

Numbers:

BetMGM title odds: +1300

Sweet 16 projected chance: 60.1 percent

Final Four projected chance: 18.2 percent

Strengths: The Tar Heels have one of the elite guards in the country in RJ Davis — who has thrived with the departure of Caleb Love. Armando Bacot has a decreased offensive role, and he’s accepted it. Two transfers — Harrison Ingram (Stanford), Cormac Ryan (Notre Dame) — and reclassified freshman point guard Elliot Cadeau have made the Tar Heels legit Final Four contenders again.

Weaknesses: Bacot hasn’t been nearly as effective this season on the offensive end, and tends to struggle against length and athleticism. While the Tar Heels have been improved defensively, the backcourt is small — and Cadeau is still a freshman who isn’t much of a threat to shoot it.

Outlook: This team has chemistry, which was clearly lacking a year ago. They have floor-spacing with the addition of Ingram and Ryan. Davis uses his bench this year, and they have a guy who can go get a basket — and is efficient in doing so. This is a group that came into the season with something to prove, and they have done so — with improved defense, winning on the road and claiming the ACC regular-season title.

— Jeff Goodman

No. 16 seed, West Region

Opponent, time, TV: UNC, 2:45 p.m., CBS

Team in 16 words: The Seahawks have momentum, seven healthy players and a former Seton Hall point guard as coach.

Record: 17-15 (7-9 NEC)

Coach: Donald Copeland (First NCAA Tournament)

Player to watch: Melvin Council Jr. (first-team All-NEC)

Numbers:

BetMGM title odds: +200000

Sweet 16 projected chance: 0.2 percent

Final Four projected chance: 0.01 percent

Outlook: Wagner’s coach, Donald Copeland (great interview here after he won the NEC), is a former Seton Hall point guard, and that’s been a pretty great resume builder for March Madness runs lately (Shaheen Holloway and Danny Hurley can attest). The Seahawks allowed the fewest points per game in the NEC (62.1) and were second in rebounding margin (+1.5).

The NEC ranked second-to-last among conferences this season, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an NCAA Tournament team with worse metrics than Wagner: 290th in the NET, 292nd in KenPom, 11-10 in Quad 4 this regular season.

The Seahawks won the NEC as the No. 6 seed and with just seven healthy players — did that group jell at the right time? According to the New York Post, they had assistant coaches and a football player helping them practice during the season, and they haven’t had contact practices since late December. Wagner will likely lose its first game, but this could be a team with an electric coach that just needed some time to adjust to the missing pieces.

— Brian Bennett and Nando Di Fino

Jaxson Robinson has kept BYU alive throughout its game against Duquesne, and now the Cougars are making a run. They have scored the game’s last nine points to pull within 52-49 with 7:41 to play, and Robinson has 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting.

The rest of the Cougars are 10 for 34 from the floor.

Duquesne once led by 14 points (46-32). BYU’S last lead was 20-19 in the first half.

CHARLOTTE — Don’t look now, but here comes the Michigan State team that many had picked in the top-5 back in the preseason. The Spartans didn’t just beat Mississippi State 69-51 on Thursday; Tom Izzo’s team crushed the Bulldogs, leading for the entire 40 minutes and looking as polished as they have at any point this season.

MSU made 10 3-pointers — its most in a game since a Feb. 20 loss to Iowa — and its sensational guard play was a difference all day.

It potentially sets up a fascinating round of 32 matchup with North Carolina, too, assuming the No. 1 seed in the West can take care of No. 16 Wagner. Michigan State assistant Doug Wojcik used to be an assistant at North Carolina, and Doug’s son, Paxson, is a graduate wing for the Tar Heels.

Doug even has the scout on UNC for Saturday’s game. Doug helped recruit current UNC assistant coach Sean May — who won MOP of the 2005 Final Four — back when he was in Chapel Hill, so the connections run deep here.

CHARLOTTE – If this is the Michigan State that’s going to come to play Saturday at Spectrum Center, the Spartans have to be taken seriously in that game.

Presumably, they will be taking on West Region No. 1 seed North Carolina in the round of 32, if North Carolina takes care of No. 16 seed Wagner in a game that starts in a few minutes. The No. 9 seed Spartans handled No. 8 seed Mississippi State impressively in the first game of the round of 64, rolling 69-51 behind 19 points from Tyson Walker and 15 from Jaden Akins.

Those two were 6-for-13 combined from 3-point range on a 10-for-23 day (40.9 percent) for the Spartans. Getting efficient shooting from those two is as much a necessity as anything for this team if it wants to advance. MSU shot 27-for-54 from the field as a team, carving up Chris Jans’ pressuring zone with layups and open corner looks.

And the Spartans actually followed the obvious defensive scouting report in the second half — don’t give Bulldogs freshman star Josh Hubbard an inch of space.

Hubbard kept his team in the game in the first half with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting. In the second? He was 1-for-9 for two points. And most of those were forces from extra long range with a defender in his face.

This is where Tom Izzo is at his best, the second day of an NCAA Tournament weekend with the short turnaround. The Spartans are 24-7 under Izzo in such games. Izzo is now 56-24 (.700) overall in the NCAA Tournament, third among active coaches in percentage behind John Calipari (48-19, .716) and Bill Self (52-21. 712). He is tops among active coaches in total NCAA wins.

PITTSBURGH — Akron is right in the game, and star forward Enrique Freeman is leading the upset-minded Zips.

At halftime, Creighton leads 39-34. Freeman has 15 points, 8 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal.

Creighton coach Doug McDermott spoke Wednesday about Freeman's athleticism and ability to attack from different angles, and both have been on display. Though Creighton has a size advantage across the board and a signficant one in the post matchup between Freeman and Creighton center Ryan Kalkenbrenner, Freeman has found space in and out of the paint.

Freeman is 6-foot-7, 206. Kalkenbrenner is 7-foot-1, 270.

These guys have done this before. Kalkenbrenner entered the game with 814 career rebounds and 296 career blocks.

Freeman entered the game with 1,391 career rebounds and 185 blocks. Freeman blocked one of Kalkbrenner's shots early in the game, but later in the half Kalkbrenner used his size to get a pair of scores over Freeman near the rim.

After one of them, Freeman answered right back with a baby hook. Akron took a 33-31 lead on another Freeman hook shot with just over three minutes left in the half.

Freeman won't apologize for banking in a 3-pointer for Akron's first points, nor should he have to. The former walk-on and the national leader in both rebounds and double-doubles introduced himself nicely to a national audience in the first half.

Some history as Duquesne takes its largest lead of the day, 46-32, over BYU with 16:44 to go in the second half …

• This is Duquesne's first NCAA Tournament game since 1977.
• The Dukes' last tournament win came on March 15, 1969 over St. John's in an East Regional third-place game (yes, that was once a thing).
• There were only 25 teams the tournament in 1969, which ended with John Wooden winning his fifth title with UCLA.

Dan Monson rode shotgun while his wife, Darci, steered the car down I-15 through the deserts that separate Las Vegas from California. Outside his window, the barren wasteland stretched on to the horizon, offering a view to everywhere and nowhere all at once. The irony of that view was not lost on Monson, who suddenly finds himself on a similar road. He is headed to college basketball paradise, to the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He also is no longer employed by the school he will represent once he gets there.

Long Beach State and Monson parted ways after 17 years a week ago Monday; six days later the Beach completed an improbable three-wins-in-three-days run to capture the Big West tournament and the automatic bid that comes with it. No. 15 Long Beach State will play No. 2 Arizona in the first round of the West Region on Thursday in Salt Lake City. “I guess you could say I’m in the middle of nowhere in a lot of respects,” Monson says as he and Darci cut through Barstow, Calif., racing home to prep for the selection show party they’d host for the players in a few hours. “I’m in a desert in my car and in my career.”

It is a bizarre and yet somehow oddly fitting arc for Monson.

Twenty-five years ago, Monson was the hotshot coach after launching a tiny Jesuit school into the national basketball conversation. In 1999, Gonzaga rolled to the Elite Eight, the first step in what would eventually become one of the most impressive building projects in all of college athletics. Monson, though, wasn’t there to see the seeds he planted blossom. Lured into the Icarus draw of college basketball potential, he jumped for a bigger job, taking over a Minnesota team mired in a massive academic scandal. He thought it made sense, figured the run he took at Gonzaga could easily be recreated with the better resources Minnesota offered.

He managed to scrub the Gophers’ image, but not find the success the school wanted. He resigned in 2007, at the start of his eighth season, while Mark Few and Gonzaga made their ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance (the streak will reach its 25th season this week). He wound up at Long Beach State which, like Minnesota, needed a clean-up job. The NCAA hit the Beach with three years’ probation for infractions committed by Monson’s predecessor. He found a good life there, stretching his stay to 17 years, a veritable lifetime in a profession that typically has the shelf life of a browning banana.

But nothing lasts forever in college sports. Two years ago, then-athletic director Andy Fee talked about a contract extension, but then Fee left for a position at the University of Washington in August 2022. His replacement, Bobby Smitheran, came aboard this August, while Monson’s contract was nearing its end.

After an 18-9 start, the Beach lost its last five games of the regular season, limping into the conference tournament at 18-14. After the final loss, to UC Davis on March 9, Monson texted Smitheran to set up a meeting. He understood the program might need a new voice, and recognized perhaps a change would do him good, too. He offered to resign after the tournament, but Smitheran said he preferred it happen immediately. Monson said he didn’t want to quit on his team, so they agreed Monson would coach them through the conference tourney, but announce the decision immediately.

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Mississippi State hasn’t led in its game against Michigan State, and it’s on the verge of being blown out and eliminated in the first game of the tournament.

The Spartans’ largest lead is 17 points, and they lead by 16 (66-50) as the game nears the final media timeout of the second half.